


The Time Between Day and Night

by skippingreelsofrhyme



Category: Homestuck
Genre: ;33, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-09
Updated: 2012-01-09
Packaged: 2017-10-29 06:11:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/316642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skippingreelsofrhyme/pseuds/skippingreelsofrhyme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>… in which a human moves to Three-Pronged-Eating-Utensils and falls in pity with a Jade Blood Rainbow Drinker, involving eleven pairings, one chase scene, one broken window, and one sloppy make-out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Time Between Day and Night

**Author's Note:**

> About three things Rose was absolutely positive. First, that Kanaya was a Rainbow Drinker. Second, there was a part of her- and she didn't know how dominant that part might be- that thirsted for her red human blood. And third, she was unconditionally and irrevocably in pity with her.  
> But troll romance sure is confusing.

Rose had given much thought to how she would die- she'd had reason enough in the last few months- and even though she had, she would not have imagined it quite like this.  
Firstly, there was either more blood involved or she was just really old.  
But here she was, staring without breathing across the long room, into the bright eyes of a Huntress, and she looked pleasantly back at her.  
Well, surely this was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone she pitied. Noble, even. That ought to count for something.  
Rose knew that if she had never gone to Three-Pronged-Eating-Utensils, she wouldn't be facing death now. And, through the lack of terror, she could not bring herself to regret the decision. Afterall, her and all her friends and acquaintances had all died at least once.

 

Rose was pouting on the car ride to the airport. Her crazy, batshit insane alcoholic mother was going away with her boyfriend. He was a nice man, smoked a pipe, had a great hat. Rose, on the other hand, was going to live with her father, who preferred to be called Bro. He was nuts too.

 

He lived in the troll town Three-Pronged-Eating-Utensils in Washington. She had another name for it on the tip of her tongue, perhaps a shorter, more human name. Oh well.

When Rose went to school the next day, and met a nice human called John. He seemed pretty excited to have a new person in the tiny school. He walked her to Study-of-Things-Living-and-Dead.

 

Rose sat down in the only empty seat, right next to a troll girl with jade blood. The Jade girl did not seem pleased and scooted as far away from the human as she could. She was very beautiful, and Rose studied her all class.

 

 

At lunch she sat with some troll friends of John's- Vriska and Eridan. Well, Eridan sat with them anyway. She wasn’t too sure whether they were actually friends with him. She observed the Jade blood walking to a table near the window, sitting with some other trolls, who were also all very beautiful.  
"Who are they?" Rose asked John.  
"Those are the Culls," inserted Vriska. "They are like, all together. Like, together together."  
"They like, all pity each other," said Eridan. He noticed Rose looking at the Jade. "Oh, that's Kanaya. Don’t even bother asking. She doesn't fill quadrants." Eridan seemed to speak with an air of experience.  
There were four other trolls sitting with Kanaya. There was a huge guy who didn't stop sweating, next to a girl with curly horns and long eyelashes.  
"That's Equius and Aradia. They're together," said John. There was a teensy cat-girl-troll near them sitting next to a grumpy troll with nubby horns.  
"That's Nepeta and Karkat. Another couuuuuuuuple," said Vriska, stretching out her vowels. Rose was intrigued by the lot of them.

 

On the weekend, Bro said that Jade and her grandfather would be coming over.  
“Do you remember Jade?” Jade was the little human from the hippie preserve near the water that she played with when she was little too. She guessed that Jade would probably not be so little anymore.  
“No,” Rose answered.  
There was a knock on the door, and Bro went to open it. It was Jade and her grandfather, Tavros. Tavros was a troll, and Jade was a human, but Rose made it a point not to get into conversations about relationships. Since Tavros was in a wheelchair, Bro helped Jade bring him inside. The two men went into the other room, leaving the girls behind.  
“Hello, Rose!” said Jade cheerfully.  
“Hello, Jade,” answered Rose.  
“Um, so I was wondering… Do you want to come over to the preserve this weekend? We’re having a little beach party.”  
“Oh. Uh, sure. Could Kanaya come?”  
“No. The Culls aren’t allowed on the preserve.”

 

 

“Hey Rose,” John called when he saw her at school. “Do you want to go to prom with me?”  
“Err,” Rose mumbled as she looked at Vriska with the corner of her eye. Vriska was steaming mad, and glowering at the two of them. “I’m sorry, John. I already have a date.”  
“Oh,” said John, lowering his head. “Who-“  
“But you should definitely consider asking out Vriska.”  
“What?”  
“I think she’d definitely say yes.”  
“Oh, okay. Thanks, Rose,” John said as he walked away. “I guess I’ll ask her afterschool.” Rose walked over to Vriska and Eridan.  
“Well,” Vriska said cooly. “What were you and John talking about, hmmmmmmmm?”  
“John’s going to ask you out!” said Rose, trying to act cheerfully.  
“Really!?” Vriska seemed surprised.  
“Hey, in honor if this ewent, let’s go dress shopping this weekend!” said Eridan. Rose looked at him for a moment, but decided to ignore it.  
“Fine, I’m going somewhere else on Friday, so how about Saturday?”  
“Great!” answered Vriska.

Rose went to the hippie preserve on Friday and met up with Jade.  
“Hi Rose!” Jade took Rose’s hand and walked down to the fire where some other hippies were sitting- both troll and human.  
“Jade, can I ask you something?”  
“Sure, what’s up?”  
“Why can’t the Culls come onto the preserve?” Jade narrowed her eyes.  
“Okay, I’ll tell you,” she said. “But it’s just an old legend, and you need to understand that it’s just silly hippie folklore! Don’t laugh at me, okay?”  
“Of course not,” Rose replied.  
“Okey-dokey,” said Jade. “Here it goes. So there’s an old legend that hippies can turn into wolves.”  
“That’s stupid.”  
“Shh! I know! But so it is said that hippies have only one enemy-“  
“The government? Drug laws?”  
“Rose! They’re called the Rainbow Drinkers.”  
“Isn’t that just for trolls?”  
“Apparently humans can be that too. But with a different name.”  
“Vampires?”  
“What does that word mean?”  
“Nothing. Keep telling me your story.”  
“Okay, so apparently there is this group of Rainbow Drinkers that doesn’t drink troll- or I guess human too- blood. So my great-grandfather made a treaty with them that we wouldn’t run them off the land-“  
“As wolves?”  
“As wolves with guns, so long as they didn’t kill anybody.”  
“So how does this fit in with the Culls?”  
“They’re the same ones as the ones my great-grandfather chased off.”  
“Wow. Weird.”  
“I know, right? Hippies are so silly!”

 

 

Rose got into Vriska’s car in the passenger seat. Eridan was in the back.  
“Road trip!!!” the two yelled all the way there. Really, it was only an hour away.  
After dress shopping, Rose decided to go out alone to find a book store so she could research Rainbow Drinkers. She got lost on the way, and found that she was wandering around the same few blocks. Troll construction sure was confusing. A car pulled up.  
“Hello, Rose.”  
“Oh. Hello, Kanaya.” Rose was a bit surprised that she knew her name.  
“Are you lost?”  
“Yes.”  
“Would you like a ride home?”  
“Yes please,” Rose answered, and hopped in the car.  
“Do you need to call your friends?”

 

“Yes, I will.” Rose dialed Vriska on her cell phone and informed her that she had another ride. She put away her phone and sat in silence as Kanaya drove.  
“You’re driving awfully slow,” said Rose.  
“That’s because driving fast is a cliché,” answered Kanaya. “Rose, I do not think that you should hang out with me.”  
“Why?”  
“I am dangerous.”  
“That is silly.”  
“Yes it is.” They sat in silence for a while.  
“Can this mean that we’re dating, now?” asked Rose.  
“Okay,” answered Kanaya.

“Rose.”  
“Yes?”  
“I want you to see something, come with me,” Kanaya beckoned. They walked through the forest to a little clearing. Sun was shining through the trees. They sat down in the grass, and Kanaya’s skin sparkled.  
“I know what you are.”  
“Say it.”  
“A Rainbow Drinker.”  
“Yes.”  
“Okay, then.”

 

“Kanaya, I would like to meet your family.”  
“Well, then. Okay. I suppose you can. Would you like to come over tonight? We’re playing grubball.”  
“Sure. What’s grubball? A Rainbow Drinker thing?”  
“A troll thing,” Kanaya answered. She took Rose’s hand and led her to her car. They drove up to her house, and Kanaya led the way in.  
“Sollux, Feferi! Rose has come for a visit.” A magenta-blooded female and a mustard blood male came to the door.  
“Thankth for coming over,” said the male. “I’m Thollux Cull. Thith ith my matethprit, Feferi Cull.”  
“You are very brave for coming here,” said Feferi. “We’ve been wanting to meet you for quite some time! Good to finally see you!”  
“Nice to meet you too,” said Rose, shaking Sollux’s hand.

 

“What’s going on?” said Aradia, coming around a corner.  
“Ooh! It’s Rose!” giggled Nepeta, following the rust blood. The two other male trolls followed them.  
“Who are you?” Karkat coughed. “What’s she doing here?”

 

“Calm down, Karkat,” said Equius. “She is Kanaya’s flushed quadrant.”  
“Whale,” said Feferi. “This is Aradia, Nepeta, Karkat, and Equius. That’s the whole family.”

 

Once the Culls had gotten changed into their grubball-playing outfits, they went out to a field with baseball bats.  
“Thith ith how you play grubball,” said Sollux, leading Rose by the hand.

 

Suddenly two figures appeared out of the forest.  
“No,” said Aradia. Equius pushed Rose behind him.  
“What’s happening?” Rose asked Kanaya.  
“Those are Rainbow Drinkers.” They got closer, and Rose got a better look at them. One was a male human wearing sunglasses, and the other a female teal-blood.

 

“Well, isn’t this ironic?” said the male. “We were looking for a meal, and here one is, ripe for the plucking.”

 

“Thith one ith not for conthumption. Back off, human.”

 

“Well,” the female cackled. She seemed to be blind. “I can certainly smell that this is a rather pretty one. He he he he.”

 

“Rose,” whispered Kanaya. “Stay still, and run when Nepeta says.” Rose stayed still.

 

All of a sudden, the two packs of Rainbow Drinkers sprang at each other, and Nepeta yowled a cat sound. Rose felt Kanaya’s hand around her wrist, and they ran. They got in Kanaya’s car, and drove away. They went to a hotel near where Rose’s mother lived.

Kanaya was in the other room, when the phone rang. Rose answered it.  
“Rose? Rose? Rose!” the panicked voice of her mother rang through the receiver.  
“Mom?!”  
“If you want to see your mother alive again,” Rose recognized the voice of the male Rainbow Drinker. “You’ll come to the ballet studio on Elm Street. You know the one.” The phone went dead.

 

 

“Oh you fool,” said the male when Rose entered the studio. He held up a tape recorder. Her mother was never in danger in the first place.

A window crashed and Kanaya’s form came hurtling through the frame, her foot colliding with the male’s head. He collapsed and Kanaya led Rose out of the place.

 

“Thank you for saving me, Kanaya,” said Rose.  
“You’re welcome,” answered Kanaya, and kissed her.

**Author's Note:**

> how do i put in images? this has pictures, but i can't figure out how to put them in
> 
> (btw this is only for the ironies)


End file.
